Interlocking ingots



Oct. 18, 1955 S. E. MCF L 2,720,968

INTERLOCKING INGOTS Filed Dec. 31, 1952 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR.

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14 TTO/P/VE Y Oct. 18, 1955 Filed Dec. 31, 1952 IN V EN TOR. lay Z I'd/lfian United States Patent Ofiice 2,720,968 Patented Oct. 18 1955 ingotsdescribed by INTERLOCKIN G INGOTS Stanley Eric McFall, St. Sauveur desMonts, Quebec, Canada, assignor to Aluminium Laboratories, Limited,Montreal, Quebec, Canada, a corporation of Canada Application December31, 1952 Serial No. 328,901 3 Claims. .(Cl. 206-65) The presentinvention relates to articles adapted to be stacked in tiers or layers,and to shipping bundles containing a plurality of such layers.

The invention as described herein is applied to metal ingots,particularly aluminum ingots and to shipping bundles of such ingots.While the invention is of especial utility in connection with suchingots, it is of more general utility in connection with other articles,and I therefore do not intend to limit my invention in its broadestaspects to any specific article.

In the copending application of William G. ,M. Wilson, Serial No.328,838, filed December 31, 1952, there is shown and described analuminum ingot which is adapted to be assembled in tiers with othersimilar ingots. The Wilson may be assembled either in tiers wherein all.ingots an upright or in tiers wherein the alternate ingots .areinverted. When so assembled, lugs and notches provided on the ingotsinterlock to prevent endwise sliding of the ingots relative to oneanother. Such endwise sliding is undesirable for many reasons.Specifically, it sometimes causes adjacent bundles in freight cars tointerlock so that the bundles have to be cut apart and each ingotunloaded by hand.

When ingots are constructed as shown and described in the Wilsonapplication mentioned above, each ingot is provided with a pair ofwidely spaced lugs on one side and a pair of narrowly spaced lugs on theopposite side. All the lugs are located at the bottom of the ingot. Atthe top of the ingot there are provided corresponding widely andnarrowly spaced notches. When such ingots are being assembled in tiers,it is necessary that all the ingots be kept oriented in the same sense.If one ingot is turned end for end, its widely spaced lugs will be foundfacing the narrowly spaced notches on the adjacent ingots and viceversa. Since ingots occasionally become turned end for end in handlingprior to their assembly into bundles, considerable time and effort isspent in turning these ingots back so that their orientation will be thesame as the other ingots in the bundle.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to construct an ingotadapted for assembly either in tiers wherein all the ingots are uprightor in tiers wherein each alternate ingot is inverted, and which isadaptable to assembly in tiers of the alternate inverted type regardlessof its orientation. A further object of the invention is to provide abundle of such ingots.

The foregoing and other objects of the invention are attained byconstructing ingots similar to those described in the Wilson applicationmentioned above, but modified to the extent of widening all the notches,so that they are substantially twice the width of the lugs.Consequently, any pair of notches on a first ingot will receive either anarrowly spaced or a widely spaced pair of lugs on an adjacent invertedingot, whether the orientation of that adjacent ingot is the same or thereverse of the orientation of the first ingot.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of an ingot constructed in accordance with theinvention;

Fig. 2 is an elevational view of the ingot of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken on the line 'of Figs. 1 and .2, lookingin the direction of the arrows;

'Fig. 4 is a plan view showing the top tier of a bundle of ingots whenassembled with all the ingots upright;

'Fig. 5 is an elevational view of a tier of three ingots assembled withthe middle ingot of the tier inverted;

Fig. 6 is a sectional view taken on the line VI-VI of Pig. 5, showingthe interlocking of the lugs and notches when the orientation of the twoend ingots is the same;

Fig. 7 is a view similar to Fig. 6 showing the inter locking of the lugsand notches when the orientation 'of one of the two end ingots isreversed.

Referring to the drawings, there is shown in Figs. '1 to 3 an ingot 1having on one side adjacent its bottom a pair of widely spacedprojecting lugs 2 and on its opposite side near the bottom .a pair ofmore narrowly spaced projecting lugs 3. The top of the ingot 1 is formedwith four notches 4, all of which have a width which is .twice that oflugs 2 and 3. The inner ends of the notches 4 are aligned with the lugs3 while the outer ends of the notches 4 are aligned with the lugs 2.

The distance between the inwardly facing surface of the lugs 2 is justslightly larger than the distance between the outwardly facing surfacesof the lugs 3,, so that the lugs 3 on an adjacent similar article mayslide freely between the 'lugs 2.

The distance between each lug 3 and the end of the ingot is madesubstantially equal to the distance between the corresponding lug 2 andthe end of the ingot plus the width of the lug 2. By ,so dimensioningthe lugs and their spacing from 'the ingot ends, they may be made tohold the ends of the ingots in substantial alignment, so that thecompleted bundle has on its ends no projections nor recesses which wouldbe likely to cause interlocking of adjacent bundles.

Fig. 4 shows a bundle having a top layer consisting of three of theingots 1 held together by a pair of bands 6. The ingots i are allupright. It may be seen that the ingots 1 are held against longitudinalmovement by the interlocking of the narrowly spaced lugs 3 on each ingotwith the widely spaced lugs 2 on the adjacent ingots.

Figs. 5 to 7 illustrate a tier of three ingots 1 assembled with thecenter ingot inverted. When the two end ingots have the sameorientation, as illustrated in Fig. 6, the notches 4 on the center ingotreceive the wide lugs 2 on the left hand ingot and the narrow lugs 3 onthe right hand ingot. The lugs and notches are effective to lock theadjacent ingots against any substantial relative endwise movement.

The situation which exists when the two end ingots have oppositeorientation is illustrated in Fig. 7. There the notches 4 on theinverted ingot receive the widely spaced lugs 2 of both the end ingots.Again each pair of adjacent ingots is locked against endwise movement.

The tier of ingots illustrated in Figs. 5 to 7 may be extended tocontain any convenient number of ingots and may be assembled with othersuch tiers to form a bundle.

The lugs have been disclosed as located at the bottom of the ingot andthe notches at the top. This is the most convenient arrangement forcasting purposes. However, the interlocking would be just as effectivewith the lugs at the top and the notches at the bottom. Therefore, inthis specification and the appended claims, it is to be considered thatthe terms bottom and top are relative, referring to opposite horizontalfaces of the ingot, without limitation as to the particular face whichis up.

Modifications of my invention other than that described herein willreadily appear to those skilled in the art and I therefore intend myinvention to be limited only :by the appended claims.

I claim: 7 j

1. An elongated article adapted to form with'other similar articles atier of articles interlocked against relative longitudinal movementcomprising an elongated body with a first pair of lugs projectinglaterally from one side of said body and having their facing surfaceslongitudinally spaced by a predetermined distance, and a second pair oflugs projecting laterally from the opposite side of said body, thesurfaces of said second pair of lugs nearest the end of said body beingspaced longitudinally by a distance slightly smaller than saidpredetermined distance so that two such articles may be placed side byside with the second pair of lugs on one article fitting between'thefirst pair of lugs on the other article and cooperating therewith toprevent relative longitudinal shifting of the articles, both said pairsof lugs being adjacent the bottom of said body, said body also havingtwo pairs of longitudinally spaced notches formed in the opposite sidesof said body and adjacent the top thereof, each said notch having awidth equal to the sum of the widths of one of said first lugs and ofone of said second lugs, so that when said article is placed with othersimilar articles in a tier which consists of alternate upright andinverted articles, the lugs and notches on adjacent articles cooperateto prevent relative longitudinal shifting of the articles, even thoughsome of the articles may be turned end for end.

2. 'An article as defined in claim 1, consisting of an ingot.

3. A bundle consisting of at least one tier of elongated articlesinterlocked against relative longitudinal movement, each said articlecomprising an elongated body with a first pair of longitudinally spacedlugs projecting laterally from one side of said body, and a second pairof longitudinally spaced lugs projecting laterally from the oppositeside thereof, both said pairs of lugs being at the same level adjacentthe bottom of said body, each lug of said second pair having its surfacenearest the end of the body spaced from said end by a distance slightlygreater than the sum of the distance of the corresponding surface of thecorresponding lug of the first pair from said end of the body plus theWidth of said corresponding lug, all said lugs being of substantiallyequal width, said body also having two'pairs of longitudinally spacednotches formed in the opposite sides of said body and adjacent the topthereof, each said notch having a width substantially equal to twice thewidth of one of said lugs, with its end nearest the end of said bodyaligned with the corresponding end of one of said first pairs of lugs,

and its end nearest the center of said body aligned with thecorresponding end of one of said second pair of lugs, the articles insaid tier being alternately upright and inverted, with the lugs andnotches on adjacent articles cooperating to prevent relativelongitudinal shifting of the articles, regardless of the relativeendwise orientation of adjacent articles, and at least one bandextending transversely around said bundle and holding said articlesagainst lateral shifting movement, said band being efiective to holdsaid lugs and notches in interlocking engagement.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS186,336 Hayden Jan. 30, 1877 475,969 Peacock May 31, 1892 674,093Morison May 14, 1901 1,231,897 Jenkins July 3, 1917 2,119,112 MitchellMay 31, 1938 2,580,224 Grazer Dec. 25, 1951

